GATINEAU – Puerto Rico rebounded from its opening day loss to Canada on Tuesday to defeat the Dominican Republic 25-27, 25-23, 28-26, 25-17 on Tuesday at the Pan Am Cup men’s volleyball tournament.

‘’I feel like our offensive tempo was a lot better than yesterday,’’ said Puerto Rico’s captain Edgardo Goas. ‘’We kept them off balance with our serve as well.’’

Ulises Maldonado of Puerto Rico led all scorers with 21 points while Ricardo Archilla added 17 and Ezequiel Cruz 15.

‘’We gained some experience from the match against Canada,’’ said Puerto Rico’s head coach Ariel Diaz. ‘’This victory is important for us because it gives our young guys some confidence.’’

Pedro Luis Garcia was the top scorer for the Dominican, which was playing its first game, with 17 points while Elnis Palomino added 13.

‘’It was our first match and we weren’t able to keep our rhythm,’’ said Tolinson Aquino, captain of the Dominican Republic. ‘’We made mistakes on easy plays and struggled with our serve.’’

‘’Puerto Rico has a very young team but they increased the pace to recover,’’ added Jacinto Campechano head coach of the Dominican Republic. ‘’We had poor reception and our block was not our best.’’

Group A Mexico vs Venezuela

Mexico wins five-set thriller over Venezuela at Pan Am Cup

GATINEAU – Fighting for its playoff life, Mexico defeated Venezuela in a five set thriller in Group A action Tuesday at the Pan Am Cup men’s volleyball tournament 25-16, 23-25, 23-25, 25-15, 15-13.

It was the most exciting match of the tournament so far and the first to go beyond three straight sets. Mexico betters its record to 1-1 while Venezuela was playing its tournament opener. The Venezuelans battle Brazil (1-0) on Wednesday.

‘’It was a great battle, the teams played with heart,’’ said Mexico’s captain Jorge Quinones. ‘’We played a very good the first set, the next two sets not so good and then we were better in sets four and five.’’

‘’It was a very hard match and the rhythm changed a lot,’’ added Mexico’s head coach Jorge Azair. ‘’But it was better than yesterday ( a loss to Brazil) and we were a lot less nervous.’’

Daniel Vargas and Marco Macias led Mexico with 19 points and Tomas Aguilera added 15 in a match that lasted one hour and 56 minutes.

The U.S., improves its record to 2-0 while Panama falls to 0-2. With the win, the U.S. -Argentina round robin match on Wednesday will determine top spot in pool C with a potential bye to the semifinal on the line as well.

‘’U.S., and Argentina have a great history,’’ said U.S. head coach Gordon Mayforth. ‘’We have played against each other many times. It’s going to be a very good match, we know that Argentina has a lot of talent.’’

The Americans feel they are improving.

‘’This victory was a big step for us,’’ said U.S., captain Robert Tarr. ‘’We showed we have a really deep team with some experience and some young guys who have come in and done a really good job. Panama presented some challenges and we had to be disciplined.’’

Panama is currently in a transition phase and was pleased to get an opportunity to play one of the sport’s powerhouses.

‘’Our team played its best against a very strong opponent,’’ said Panama’s head coach Sergio Ballestas. ‘’We have some new players and we haven’t played together in any league or tournament.’’

‘’We tried to input speed in our plays but it wasn’t enough,’’ added Panama’s captain Ricardo Brown. ‘’The players on the U.S., are very tall and it is hard for us to pass the block.’

The Argentineans improved their record to two wins and no losses while the Bahamas, making its Pan Am Cup debut, dropped to 0-2.

Argentina needed to press the reset button after a slow start to the match.

‘’Bahamas plays a different system from us,’’ said Argentina’s head coach Juan Manuel Cichello. ‘’I was upset about our start but we made the necessary adjustments to play our game. We made the playoffs and that was our goal coming into this tournament.’’

‘’We played better than in our first match,’’ said Argentina’s captain Juan Ignacio Finoli. ‘’We were tougher.’’